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An Introduction to Zooarchaeology pp 281–303Cite as

Primary Human Effects: Cutting Edge and Percussion Effects on Bone

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Abstract

This chapter summarizes research on modifications inflicted on bone by hominin processors using cutting edges and percussors. It summarizes these implements’ distinctive traces, including slicing, scraping, sawing, chopping marks made by stone and metal tools, and percussion marks produced by hammerstones and stone anvils and by clubbing against anvils, as well as by metal chopping tools. It introduces a vocabulary that distinguishes different stages in tool-aided carcass processing to be used in the balance of the book. Whether and how cut marks on bone surfaces can reliably be used to infer intensity of processing or functional butchery operations is a contentious matter in zooarchaeology and is introduced here. This chapter discusses the overlap of hammerstone impact marks with static loading notches produced by large carnivores. As with the parallel case of trample and cut marks discussed in Chapter 13, many such instances can be clarified by systematic, actualistically informed approaches using multiple lines of contextual and bone surface evidence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Diane Gifford-Gonzalez

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  1. Diane Gifford-Gonzalez
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Gifford-Gonzalez, D. (2018). Primary Human Effects: Cutting Edge and Percussion Effects on Bone. In: An Introduction to Zooarchaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65682-3_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65682-3_14

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65680-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-65682-3

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